I'm going to give money this holiday to the Wes Clark campaign and to MoveOn.org.

Why not Dean, you ask? Because a) I gave a bunch of money to Dean over the summer; b) he doesn't have a money problem right now; and c) if he keeps his momentum and wins the nomination (as I expect he will do) I will be contributing regularly to his campaign over the next 10 months.

I'm giving to Clark because I think he could run a good, winning campaign against Bush. I've watched a good deal of Clark over the past couple of months, and while he still has certain undeniable flaws (namely his inability to clearly and quickly explain and dismiss the nagging issue of his "early retirement" from the NATO command when asked this question by reporters) he engages people, personally and speaking before a crowd, in a way that's genuinely dazzling--and he inspires certain kinds of emotional responses in the crowd that I think the other candidates don't.

So, I'm giving to Clark because I want to help his campaign have a chance to perform, if it can perform, in the time there is left. If not, I want Clark to have a strong second-place showing.

I'm giving to MoveOn because they are the most important grass-roots political organization in the country, and they are going to have an extremely important role in the 2004 election. Specifically, they are completing their "Bush in 30 Seconds" ad campaign to be aired nationally around the time of the State of the Union address. The winning ad (chosen from a pool of 1,000 spots submitted by MoveOn members) is going to be announced on Jan. 12.

I strongly encourage every AmCop reader to donate whatever you can to whoever you want to donate it to--but please do it now, because December 31 is an important fund-raising deadline for political candidates.